Lawyers’ group targets EJK doctors’ probe

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) on Sunday strongly backed calls to investigate doctors accused of falsifying death certificates of alleged drug suspects who died in police operations during the Duterte administration’s brutal drug war in a supposed attempt to cover up “state-backed” extrajudicial killings (EJK).

The call came as the Philippine Truth Commission nudges the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to review reports of physicians’ deliberate misclassification of drug war deaths ahead of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court on 30 November.

Forensic pathologist and commission member, Dr. Raquel Fortun, recently said that at least 13 cases of deaths in Caloocan and Quezon City were incorrectly listed as "natural causes" for their deaths, despite clear evidence of gunshot wounds in their body.

Atty. Ephraim Cortez, the NUPL president, commended the commission for helping bring to light the alleged anomaly in the death certificates, saying this has been a long-standing concern of the families of EJK victims.

“We don’t know why it had to be done that way. Obviously, the purpose is to shield the police officers from prosecution,” Cortez said in a radio interview.

“Police reports are stating that these individuals were killed during legitimate police operations, yet their death certificates indicate ‘natural causes,'” he added.

Natural causes include pneumonia, heart attack, and stroke, among others, although examination of the bodies revealed they sustained gunshot wounds mostly in the head.

Five doctors are allegedly involved in the said case, one of whom has already died.

The families of EJK victims were “enraged” by the supposed complicity of doctors, Cortez said, especially since most of them could not afford an autopsy report.